Sunday, 11 October 2009

New jib for Tim's boat

Approx 10 nautical miles

Tim, Mark and I went down to the club this morning and fitted a new jib. Tim had brought the jib back from the USA when he visited. The old one was sun damaged. The new one had a UV protection sleeve which could be hoisted on a halyard around it. So... we removed the forestay and returned it to a combined jib/forestay.

Tim also bought a Hawk apparent wind direction indicator, which we mounted at the top of the mast. Because the mast is aerofoil and rotating, it turns into the wind. This means that although the indicator correctly points to apparent wind, the reference arms are never showing you something useful! However, it's still useful indicator and while I was sailing his boat today found it useful for downwind runs...

OK, so we then had to sea trial the new jib. We went out, with Tim helming and tacked off towards the port. A very large roll-on roll-off ferry was coming out, with a pilot cutter in attendance. We stayed to the north side of the starboard harbour entrance buoy to stay clear.

In the other harbour a number of yachts and motor vessels are moored and we sailed around them and then into the outer visitors area of the marina... taking a look again at one of the yachts we looked at yesterday and then on to the castle.

Hmmm... yes, the Morgan is a beautiful yacht. Too far away for a photo.

We passed a dive vessel coming into the marina. Tim thought it was more like a dive barge and didn't deserve the name boat!

They dive down to the Zenobia, which is a sunken ship out in Larnaca bay. It's claimed to be one of the best 10 shipwreck dives in the world. The Zenobia was a roll-on roll-off ferry that capsized in Larnaca Bay possibly due to a computer fault making the ballasting system go wrong.

Diving is something that I will never do. I prefer to stay on top of the water... I'm not that keen on being in the water to be honest!

We turned back and Tim let me and then Mark helm Saga. I found it quite difficult helming on a boat where you control the rudder with your feet. A new skill to learn. I was sitting there thinking 'Now what do I do with my hands?'

Anyway, she tacked and gybed quite easily and was a gentle boat to sail. The winds were light [Bft 2 rising to Bft 3 while we were sailing] and the sail a nice gentle trip around the bay.